Explanation: Since
November 2000, people have been living
continuously on the International Space Station.
To celebrate humanity's 15th anniversary
off planet Earth,
consider this
snapshot
from space of our galaxy and
our home world posing together beyond the orbital outpost.
The Milky Way stretches below the curve of Earth's limb in the scene
that also records a faint red, extended airglow.
The galaxy's central bulge appears with starfields
cut by dark rifts of obscuring interstellar dust.
The picture was taken by Astronaut Scott Kelly on August 9, 2015,
the 135th day of his
one-year mission in space.